Well, Palanthas is occupied by the Knights of Takhisis; actually it is part of Khellendros’s territory, and the dark knights serve him here. The Tower of High Sorcery is gone; the Temple of Paladine as far as I remember still stands but presumably there is no worship of Paladine going on there; Astinus is gone from the Great Library but it is otherwise unchanged, just under Bertrem’s leadership (easy enough to put Astinus back in). So, with these changes in mind, it is a good book if you want some solid maps of the city. It’s fleshed out okay. It’s a good read in it’s own right, being a sort of narrated guidebook (which may or may not be good for gaming). I’d say go for it.

Falconer wrote:Well, Palanthas is occupied by the Knights of Takhisis; actually it is part of Khellendros’s territory, and the dark knights serve him here. The Tower of High Sorcery is gone; the Temple of Paladine as far as I remember still stands but presumably there is no worship of Paladine going on there; Astinus is gone from the Great Library but it is otherwise unchanged, just under Bertrem’s leadership (easy enough to put Astinus back in). So, with these changes in mind, it is a good book if you want some solid maps of the city. It’s fleshed out okay. It’s a good read in it’s own right, being a sort of narrated guidebook (which may or may not be good for gaming). I’d say go for it.

Thanks Falconer. (Sorry I missed this good advice, at the time.)

I think I'd be interested to learn about the occupation too. I might not want to play in the Fifth Age, but that's mostly because it doesn't really support Spelljammer/Krynnspace, like the early 2nd Edition Era material for Dragonlance does.

Perhaps I could file the serial numbers off of some of the things tied into the Fifth Age, and reuse them as inspiration for things on other worlds in Krynnspace. That would give me the ability to have a Dragonlance vibe for new things in Krynnspace. A bunch of dark knights controlling a city might even fit in a bit better with the idea of four death knights running the black market in Palanthas. Maybe this new stuff could help me make that other stuff feel less jarring.

Another possible way I could use this, could be to depart from the official Dragonlance timeline and use this book as the "desired end goal" in some sort of "plot for a takeover of Palanthas" in an earlier era. Or maybe one of those Alternate Krynns that Legends of the Twins has.

I think I'd be interested to learn about the occupation too. I might not want to play in the Fifth Age, but that's mostly because it doesn't really support Spelljammer/Krynnspace, like the early 2nd Edition Era material for Dragonlance does.

Perhaps I could file the serial numbers off of some of the things tied into the Fifth Age, and reuse them as inspiration for things on other worlds in Krynnspace. That would give me the ability to have a Dragonlance vibe for new things in Krynnspace. A bunch of dark knights controlling a city might even fit in a bit better with the idea of four death knights running the black market in Palanthas. Maybe this new stuff could help me make that other stuff feel less jarring.

Another possible way I could use this, could be to depart from the official Dragonlance timeline and use this book as the "desired end goal" in some sort of "plot for a takeover of Palanthas" in an earlier era. Or maybe one of those Alternate Krynns that Legends of the Twins has.

I'll put this on my wishlist.

I think you may be overestimating how deeply the Palanthas book is tied into the Age of Mortals. Honestly, there really isn't any need for changing timelines or filing off of serial numbers. Even the parts that refer to the Fifth Age specifically reveal that Palanthas really didn't change all that much, in spite of it being under the control of the Dark Knights. But more importantly the actually book describes what the city looked like in different eras. It's really barely a Fifth Age book at all, and it actually doesn't cover Palanthas up to the time of the Fifth Age boxed set, only going up to the early Age of Mortals, just after the Summer of Chaos, with the exception of a small handful of quotes scattered around the book. I've used this book quite extensively, and up until last night I had never really run a Fifth Age campaign. I'd say the book is fully compatible with the Age of Despair. It may be part of the Fifth Age product line, officially, but I'd describe it as a Palanthas sourcebook for both eras, but one that's ultimately better suited for the Fourth Age than the later Fifth Age

Last edited by Jayce on Fri Jul 20, 2018 11:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Another possible way I could use this, could be to depart from the official Dragonlance timeline and use this book as the "desired end goal" in some sort of "plot for a takeover of Palanthas" in an earlier era. Or maybe one of those Alternate Krynns that Legends of the Twins has.

One thing in Stan!’s intro that always caught my imagination was his desire to design “Krynn’s City State of the Invincible Overlord”. Between that and the adventures in DoSF, I have ever since loved the idea of Palanthas being ruled by Lawful Evil Dark Knights. There’s a semblance of order, but you’re still the underdog.

I think you may be overestimating how deeply the Palanthas book is tied into the Age of Mortals. Honestly, there really isn't any need for changing timelines or filing off of serial numbers. Even the parts that refer to the Fifth Age specifically reveal that Palanthas really didn't change all that much, in spite of it being under the control of the Dark Knights. But more importantly the actually book describes what the city looked like in different eras. It's really barely a Fifth Age book at all, and it actually doesn't cover Palanthas up to the time of the Fifth Age boxed set, only going up to the early Age of Mortals, just after the Summer of Chaos, with the exception of a small handful of quotes scattered around the book. I've used this book quite extensively, and up until last night I had never really run a Fifth Age campaign. I'd say the book is fully compatible with the Age of Despair. It may be part of the Fifth Age product line, officially, but I'd describe it as a Palanthas sourcebook for both eras, but one that's ultimately better suited for the Fourth Age than the later Fifth Age.

Another possible way I could use this, could be to depart from the official Dragonlance timeline and use this book as the "desired end goal" in some sort of "plot for a takeover of Palanthas" in an earlier era. Or maybe one of those Alternate Krynns that Legends of the Twins has.

One thing in Stan!’s intro that always caught my imagination was his desire to design “Krynn’s City State of the Invincible Overlord”. Between that and the adventures in DoSF, I have ever since loved the idea of Palanthas being ruled by Lawful Evil Dark Knights. There’s a semblance of order, but you’re still the underdog.

I'm still way back in the early era with the Dragonlance novels, so I don't want to skip forward too fast, but Palanthas being ruled by Lawful Evil Dark Knights does sound interesting.

The Dragonlance Chronicles novels pretty much show the Companions fleeing from the forces of evil, but Kitiara walked right into the heart of the evil area, while the others were exploring different parts of Ansalon. So it is possible for PCs to hang around an evil civilisation.